Moderasi Beragama dalam Pendidikan Islam: Antara Idealisme Normatif dan Realitas Praktik Pendidikan

Abstract

Religious moderation has emerged as an important agenda in Islamic education, particularly in responding to religious diversity, social polarization, intolerance, and the challenges of living within a pluralistic society. Normatively, religious moderation is rooted in the Islamic concept of wasatiyyah, which emphasizes balance, justice, tolerance, and the rejection of extremism and violence. However, the normative ideals of religious moderation do not always correspond with its implementation in educational practice. This article aims to critically examine the gap between the normative construction of religious moderation and its practical implementation in Islamic education. This study employs a qualitative approach using a literature review method by examining recent scholarly publications on religious moderation, Islamic education, curriculum, pedagogy, and educational practices. The findings indicate that religious moderation has gained strong conceptual and policy recognition within Islamic education. Nevertheless, its implementation continues to face several challenges, including the dominance of cognitive-oriented learning, textual approaches, top-down policy implementation, limited teacher competence, and the insufficient integration of moderation values into school culture and students' everyday experiences. These findings suggest that the central challenge is no longer the acceptance of religious moderation as a normative ideal, but rather the transformation of these values into contextual, dialogical, reflective, and transformative educational practices. Therefore, Islamic education needs to shift from merely teaching about religious moderation toward learning through religious moderation, in which students are encouraged not only to understand the principles of wasatiyyah, but also to internalize and practice them through social interaction, dialogue, collaboration, and everyday educational experiences.